


lead with the good news

by lazulisong



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, I blame Twitter, M/M, raz incepted me and i fell, shrinkyclinks, steve deserves neither sam nor bucky t b h
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7162277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazulisong/pseuds/lazulisong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're gonna kick his ass," says Sam.</p><p>"I sure am," says Bucky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lead with the good news

**Author's Note:**

  * For [razmataaz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/razmataaz/gifts).



> raz: i want shrinkyclink recs  
> meg: oh well I gotta few  
> meg:  
> meg:  
> meg: god damn it now I want to write it  
> raz; 8DDDDDDD  
> meg: i hate u

When Bucky first wakes up, his head feels heavy, like he -- what had happened to him? He couldn't remember. It didn't seem to matter much. He wants to go back to sleep again, but he can't. There's noise and light around him, but he can't tell them to be quiet and let him sleep.

He'd had his tonsils out when he was eight, and it had felt like this. Was it ether? Chloroform? He couldn't remember but it had tasted sickly-sweet in the back of his throat one second, and in the next second he'd been in the hospital bed with his mother sitting beside him. He'd been proud of having to go to the hospital instead of Steve. Steve was always going to the hospital, and it seemed like whenever Bucky visited him he was being talked to by pretty ladies with books and being resentful about it.

Steve had never had his tonsils out: Steve would have not survived the experience. He spent the week after Bucky had come home hovering around and nursing him like it was a pleasant change to fuss over someone instead of being fussed over. Bucky liked being fussed over by Steve, which had probably made the difference. Even at eight years old Bucky had known there was nothing else in the world he liked so well as Steve Rogers's full, focused attention.

Anyway, it's nice, waking up like this, slow and easy. Like he's a real person, not a block of meat flash frozen and thawed again. 

The first thing he's aware of outside of himself is a feeling of warmth, sinking down from his skin into his bones. The second thing is a beeping sound, like there's a heart monitor or something on, but it's nice and steady, and it's not harsh like his old ones had been. It's almost friendly. _Hello, wake up, it's time to get up. Good morning. How are you? We're here. We're here waiting for you._

He follows the sound lazily up, curious about it. He hears the murmur of voices, some speaking a language he isn't familiar with, one or two speaking English, but -- not that voice. The one that he thought he would hear. He can't remember who he's looking for, listening for, and he's worried for a second before he remembers: Steve. It's Steve who should be here. Where's Steve?

One of the voices is saying, "Steve is okay. He's not here right now, but Steve is alive. Steve is okay. He's alive. He's not here right now. But he's okay, I promise you he's okay."

Bucky thinks, _Wilson?_ and then he drags himself up to consciousness with a sickening effort, because if Wilson is here instead of Steve, even if Wilson is saying Steve is okay, _Steve is not okay_. 

Wilson says something to the other voices and Bucky hears people moving away and a door closing. He's still saying, "Steve is okay. Steve is okay. Steve isn't here, but he's okay. He's fine." like if he repeats it enough times it will be true enough for Bucky to believe him.

Bucky has known Steve Rogers a hell of a longer than Wilson has.

That means that Bucky has to get up. He has to go find out what sort of fucking mess Steve has got himself into and fucking fix it. Steve must be in a mess, because if he wasn't, he'd be here with Bucky, like he promised. And then he has to kick Steve's ass for whatever idiot things he's done, because what the actual fuck, Rogers. He opens his eyes, and it takes him another minute to focus his eyes enough to see that Wilson -- Sam, his name is Sam, Bucky had wanted to sing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" at him but he hadn't -- is holding a printed sign that also says STEVE IS OKAY.

He tries to say something but his mouth is still numb, so Sam puts his sign down and lifts him up a little, and gives him a drink of something warm that tastes like sugar and bananas, enough to wet his throat. Bucky coughs, but he thinks he can speak now. "Whu--" he tries, and coughs again. His tongue feels thick, like a piece of meat hanging in his mouth. He takes a deep breath in. He knows it will pass. 

Sam waits patiently, offering him another sip of the fluid. It has a weird texture, like gravy left to get cold, but it slides down easily. He's suddenly terribly thirsty, but he only takes a small sip before Sam pulls it away again. Sam manages to get him to take two or three more small drinks without choking on it before Bucky pushes it away again.

Bucky takes a deep breath in, and out, and concentrates on what he wants to say.

"What the fuck," says Bucky. "I can't leave him with anybody!"

Sam looks startled for a second, and then like he's gonna laugh. He says, "Hey, Steve's a grownup. He makes his choices." 

Bucky just stares at him.

"Stupid choices," admits Sam, "but his own." He pulls a face. "Look, if he didn't listen to Peggy Carter, why did you think he was gonna listen to me?"

Well, when he puts it that way, Bucky thinks. Somewhere in the back of his head he's still a little annoyed about Carter. She had seemed so sensible, and she definitely was as crazy about Steve as Steve was about her - but Bucky falls to his death and she can't even keep Steve from following after. Bucky definitely would have kept Steve from doing anything asinine if it had been Carter, so why the hell hadn't she?

Sam might be on his shit list, too. Bucky's not sure yet. He'd obviously let Steve do something idiotic, but at least he'd come and got Bucky. Bucky's too groggy to decide yet.

Bucky groans and and tries to stand up, but even nice cryo fucks with your balance and so he ends up clinging half to the gurney, half to Sam, until the dizziness fades. It takes a minute, but Sam is solid enough to support his weight. Sam helps him sit down again.

"Okay?" says Sam.

"Swear to fuck I've got ice crystals in my inner ears," says Bucky. He wants to shake his head to clear them but he's pretty sure he's gonna puke if he does. "I hate this part."

"You wanna try a warm rag?" says Sam. "Would that help?"

"Don't know," says Bucky. He really doesn't. Usually his vertigo got dealt with by a punch to the head and unkind hands dragging him to the chair, where he immediately had bigger and more horrible things to worry about than the spins. 

"Yeah, we're gonna try it," says Sam. He makes sure Bucky isn't going to fall and then goes to the sink and dampens a cloth, wrings it out and brings it over. 

The heat against his head actually does kind of help The cloth smells nice, too, a neutral, not quite sweet scent, almost like rice. Bucky's never had this much care taken of him after being defrosted, even if they were trying to make him bond to them. It's weird. It's nice to have Sam's gentle, sure hands holding the rag against his head, and know that Sam is good. That nothing bad is going to happen for right now. He's still anxious about Steve, but he can take enough time to face what's coming because he knows that Sam wouldn't leave Steve if he was in danger. 

It's enough. It's enough for right now.

"Thanks," he says, as Sam rewets the rag and puts it against the other ear. He swears he can feel something melting inside his ear, which is disgusting but satisfying too. 

"For what?" says Sam. He takes the rag away again and wipes off Bucky's face, careful of all the folds of Bucky's ears. He smells nice, all human and warm, and a little like stress and a fading note of aftershave. Bucky thinks it would be almost as nice as curling up next to Steve to put his head on Sam's warm shoulder and breathe his scent in.

"For a lot of things," says Bucky, "but you know. For telling me he was alive."

Sam punches his right shoulder very gently. Bucky looks down to his left shoulder - just the black cap over the exposed wiring still. It makes sense, although it's weird to be someplace where they care about him properly recovering. Maybe they're not going to give him a new arm. That would be okay, if Steve kept his ass out of trouble. Which is not going to happen. What did Steve do this time? 

"I like to lead with the good news," Sam says. "There's usually so little of it, you know?"

"What did he do," says Bucky, resigned. 

"Are you gonna kick his ass?" says Sam.

Bucky had previously thought that Sam wasn't an idiot, but it looked like he was gonna have to revise that soon. He just looks at Sam until Sam sighs and says, 

"Because Natasha already ripped him a new one in Russian. Like. It sounded really painful."

Well, good for Romanov, but Sam still isn't answering the question, and Bucky's beginning to get irritated about it. Also, this brings up the question of what the hell did Steve do that was bad enough that the combined forces of Romanov _and_ Sam were unable to prevent him from being an idiot. What's worse is that he has a creeping feeling that whatever it was, it was something Steve took into his head to do because he thought it would help Bucky. 

"Why don't you tell me what he did first," says Bucky. He already knows it's gonna be bad. He doesn't see why Sam has to avoid the question like this. He just wants Sam to fucking confess so he can _fix Steve's shit_.

"You're gonna kick his ass," says Sam. 

"I sure am," says Bucky.


End file.
